Documentaries

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:58 am

What are some of your favorite documentaries?

This summer I added the entire documentary section to my Netflix streaming queue and started working my way through them last week. I am reviewing them on Review-o-Matic.com, if anybody cares. So far I have watched "I Think We're Alone Now," "The Killing of a Chinese Cookie," and "I'm No Dummy." I think I have about 90 more to go.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 5:58 pm

"The Smartest Guys In The Room," "The BBS Documentary," "Get Lamp."

Bruce

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:29 pm

I downloaded "The Bridge." I haven't seen it yet. I saw the game based on the documentary, but that's it.

I also enjoyed Sneakers

The happiness Engine · Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:00 am

"The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief". Shows the lives of the men who work in host bars, and the women who know it's all an act, but "he really is falling in love with me!". Kind of the opposite side of a strip club.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:39 am

Rather that cut/paste spam the entire forum ...

Review: The Killing of a Chinese Cookie
Review: The Secret
Review: I Think We're Alone Now

I watched The Bridge a couple of years ago. I also watched Zoo, which, if you don't know, is the story of ... ah, just click the link.

@The Happiness Engine: "The Great Happiness Space" has been added to my Netflix streaming queue. Thanks!

@Bruce: "The Smartest Guys In The Room" is currently being acquired. Thanks! Here is my review of The BBS Documentary. I never did a "traditional" review of Get Lamp, but I did make this interactive one.

Also, yes, Sneakers was awesome. I've been meaning to go back and rewatch it.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 8:38 am

I'm running a parallel thread on The Gas Chamber as well and got some more suggestions from a friend of mine over there.

Review: Catfish

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:39 am

Review: You're Gonna Miss Me
Review: I'm No Dummy

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:48 am

The happiness Engine wrote:"The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief". Shows the lives of the men who work in host bars, and the women who know it's all an act, but "he really is falling in love with me!". Kind of the opposite side of a strip club.

Watched it last night. Wow, what an engrossing and depressing film! Review should be up tonight. Thanks for the awesome suggestion!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:08 am

The happiness Engine wrote:"The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief". Shows the lives of the men who work in host bars, and the women who know it's all an act, but "he really is falling in love with me!". Kind of the opposite side of a strip club.

Review: The Great Happiness Space

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 12:31 pm

Last night I watched a documentary about Meth addiction but I probably won't review it. I have even less to say about it than I did the ventriloquist film, and that review was a stretch.

Here's my review of the meth doc: meth's bad. It rots your skin and your teeth. It's an epidemic. 1 in 4 people in prison came in addicted to meth, and 20% of college students have tried it. It burns out your dopamine receptors in your brain to the point where all the time it feels like it probably does right now while reading this paragraph.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:44 pm

Flack wrote:What are some of your favorite documentaries?

Do they have to be "real" documentaries or can they be mockumentaries? A real one would be Michael Moore's Roger and Me and a mock one would be Spinal Tap.

For real ones, I'd pick Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me, and unlike Michael Moore, while Spurlock points out - and literally shows - how McDonald's food has too much fat in it, he doesn't demonize the company, he points out they sell a legal product to customers who want it, and that there's nothing wrong with doing that.

For mock ones, I'd have to pick Woody Allen's Zelig that was so confincing it fooled my mother into thinking it was a real story about a "chameleon man" whose size, appearance and capabilities would change when he came into contact with others, in order to blend in with them.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:59 pm

Flack wrote:Last night I watched a documentary about Meth addiction

The AMC cable network has a really interesting show called "Breaking Bad," about a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White, who discovers, after huge medical bills from having lung cancer, and other money problems, that he can make a lot more money as a cook making a high-quality Crystal Meth using his own recipe.

White has been invisible to the police because he's been exclusively a cook; he never sells the product, others do that. So they don't know who he is, all they know is a very high-grade of crystal meth is being sold in the southwest.

Very interesting show. Currently White got hired by a guy that wants him to produce 200 pounds of meth a month in the guy's state-of-the-art laboratory hidden inside a commercial laundry (which routinely purchases chemicals so nobody will realize some are being diverted to his operation, and the waste products the lab generate get mixed with the steam and water outflows of the laundry), and for the three month assignment, the guy will pay him $3 million.

White is known by the police to exist because of the high-quality blue meth he created, but they don't know who he is, so he has the alias "Heisenberg". One of the people looking for Heisenberg is White's brother-in-law, a high-ranking DEA agent.

Unfortunately White's wife found out, and essentially wants to divorce him. She wants nothing to do with his money, even to the point of saying she didn't want the large settlement of all expenses for their kids he was willing to pay. He points out to her, "How do you think I've been paying the bills during the time I was out sick from the cancer?"

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:55 pm

Tdarcos wrote:"Breaking Bad"

Not a documentary, not talking about it in this thread.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:58 pm

http://moltobenny.com/bb

TDR: Breaking Bad is not an "interesting" show, it's the greatest show in the history of television. Everyone agrees on that.

BACK TO THE DOCUMENTARIES!!!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:21 pm

I watched one about Snuff films last night. It was pretty low budget and I always question anyone who (a) claims to be an expert on snuff films and (b) is willing to appear on camera, talking about them.

About 15 minutes from the end they started showing footage of of Al-Qaeda cutting the heads off of US soldiers and I turned it off.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:01 pm

Tdarcos wrote:For real ones, I'd pick Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me, and unlike Michael Moore, while Spurlock points out - and literally shows - how McDonald's food has too much fat in it, he doesn't demonize the company, he points out they sell a legal product to customers who want it, and that there's nothing wrong with doing that.

Netflix keeps suggesting I watch "Fat Head", so I'm going to watch it tonight. It's a counter to Spurlock's film. In this one, a guy supposedly loses weight by eating McDonald's for a month. I'll have to watch it and see if there's a catch.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:19 pm

Last night I watched "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia". I doubt there's anything I could write about this film that would do it justice, so here's a brief summary.

Donald Ray "D. Ray" White and Bertie May White had 13 kids. Donald was known for two things: his unique style of tap dancing/clogging, and somehow getting all his kids on disability. Of the 13 kids, about half don't appear in the film. The half that do appear inbred, stoned, and perhaps mentally damaged. Their kids, for the most part, seem even more out of control.

For a year, a documentary crew followed the White clan around West Virginia, and we get to see the Whites do what it is the Whites do. They dance, they fight, they do coke and smoke weed, they sell drugs, they get their kids taken away by the state, one goes to rehab, one goes to prison, one gets out of prison ... that's about it.

Local law enforcement and judges are interviewed and talk about how the Whites are a pain in their butts, but that they always seem to have money so there's nothing they can do.

Basically every person in this movie has a speech impediment, and since with Netflix streaming there's no subtitles, I missed about half the dialogue. Add the fact that every White has a nickname, and basically what you have is a confusing 90-minute look at ... well, the Whites.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:00 pm

I got a load of whites for somebody

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